


Take Me Home, To My Heart

by McHummus



Series: Taking Home all Shattered Ones [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Best Friends, Brothers, Childhood, Comfort, Family, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt, Memories, Odin's A+ Parenting, Sad, Stars, changing relationship, no actual romance, too painful for words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-22 23:44:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/919443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McHummus/pseuds/McHummus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"They refuse to follow you after everything you did because they don't have anything on which to base their respect and hope for you. I have fallen to my knees before you in defeat because I hope you will do the right thing. Even if it means banishing me. Just know that I follow you because I am the only one here who loves you!"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>While fighting Loki upon Stark Towers, Thor decided that there is only one course of action left - give up his kingship in order to make Loki come home and stop his attack on Midgard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me Home, To My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This fic will literally kick you in the guts/balls/heart/feels. I don't even know how I managed to write this without bursting out crying - oh, wait, that did happen. Sorry not sorry.

"I thought you dead."

Thor had spent the majority of his time between returning to Asgard and falling back to Earth worrying about his younger brother. Their mother had also much grief to show and had tended to lock herself away. He hopes these words will erase the mad, erratic thoughts running loose in Loki's mind but it's hard to tell what good anything would do now.

Loki only smirks and quietly asks, "Did you mourn?"

Thor wants to scream that of course he did - they all had. Some people thought there was little reason for it because they didn't know the true reason. However, Thor had insisted - because if Loki were not dead, Thor would still mourn the loss of his younger brother from the times when there never seemed to be anything wrong. He manages a nod, a dazed expression crossing his features.

"Please, just..." Thor stumbles for words that cannot seem to put themselves together in his mind anymore, irregular jigsaw puzzle pieces. The stormy expression on Loki's face stops him from trying any further.

"Save your pathetic words for someone who cares more for them than me. You cannot tell me that you truly mourned the loss of me. After all, you hate frost giants. Ergo, having me around would prove to be quite problematic for you."

"I don't care about that! You are still my brother. We grew up together, played together, fought in battles together. Do you not remember any of that any longer?"

"I clearly remember living the the shadow of your glory. Odin always favoured you because he couldn't handle me becoming king - after all, I was not his son. But you are rash and obstinate and only do as you please. Tell me if you think yourself worthy of kingship." Loki pushes at Thor's shoulders, not wishing to stand too close to the figure he had been jealous of for years. But Thor only kept trying to reach out to him.

"Please, brother, stop this madness. Just come home." He slumps slightly, too exhausted from this small battle.

"I cannot for I have none. Now if that is truly all, I shall take my leave"

Loki makes to leave, to just simply bumped against Thor and be on his merry way for he assumes Thor will be spineless as usual. But when it comes to the matter of family, Thor is much more stubborn.

"You are not leaving here unless it is to come home with me." Thor straightens his back and moves to square off with Loki. If it comes to it, he will force Loki with his hand at the back of his neck.

Loki turned to face Thor and gave a throaty laugh. "And what do you mean to do with me? Just ignore my true parentage and lie to all of the people - pretend that there is nothing the matter. Or do you wish to lock me up? Make me a relic, like your father did?"

"Our father never thought of you as a relic. He loves you dearly. Why do you keep ignoring our attempts to bring you back home? We do not wish to lock you up anywhere. We just want you home. We're frantic - everyone."

"I think not."

Thor cannot remember the last time his eyes had become blurred with unshed tears. Perhaps the night that Loki had simply let go - the day he felt he had lost too much all in such a short amount of time.

"But everything that you wanted to do in order to prove yourself... Though you never needed to do that, Father understands that you still saved him from the Frost Giants!"

"Oh, that. Well, just forget that, it is no longer something that clouds my mind. After all, I do not plan to be the hero that sets up their own victory any longer."

"But, Loki, do you not see, these people, these humans that inhabit this world, will never see you as a hero?"

"I do not need them to - I know it myself. I just need them to know that I am the one they must kneel to."

There's a buzzing in Thor's ears and he has a hard time swallowing. Why is Loki fighting so hard against him? He had been sure that his reassurance of his love for his brother would have always been enough but this was different. Thoughts swam through his head and he began to drown in his regret, his thoughts too loud with words that he should have said to Loki a million times over before his brother's fall began.

He almost didn't feel the pounding of a mass of metal against his side before his breath went whooshing out of his lungs.

 

***

 

_Thor had limped in through the golden doors and Loki had immediately flown down to his side, winding his arm around Thor's back._

_His brother's face looked like it had been beaten multiple times with Mjolnir. Bruises bloomed all over his beautiful features - his nose, cheekbones, jaw, eye. His bloody lips pulled into a frown._

_"I'm alright."_

_"You are far from alright, Thor! What happened?" Frigg demanded as she stormed down from her seat by the table._

_Just as she reached her son, Odin entered, a dead boar-like creature hanging over his shoulder._

_"He just wasn't as prepared as I thought he was. Wasn't fast enough to defend himself."_

_"And you weren't close by to do the job for him? I know you want him to train but it was only his first time." Frigg nestled Thor's head into her chest and soothingly ran her hand through his hair. Loki massaged Thor's back, desperately trying to remember if he had learned any healing charms._

_After Odin had successfully reassured his wife that he would not be so fast to overestimate Thor's strength before going on journeys, Thor had been moved to his chambers, where he promptly passed out as a healer began working on his wounds._

_The more Loki looked, the more new wounds he seemed to find. That night. he hid in his parents bed until he had passed out from exhaustion._

 

***

 

He had been wary to tell Director Fury what had happened after he had taken Loki off the aircraft and spoken to him. The malicious smirk on his brother's face as he had been led by guards to an armed facility had only caused his dark mood to pummel even further. It felt like he could see straight through Thor, right into his heart, his very core.

He'd barely spoken and simply stared at the large desk at which he sat along with the other members of the group that Fury wanted to put together. His thoughts ran back to times when he was a child and he tried to remember if he ever saw Loki looking particularly miserable because he had been in the spotlight. He never saw any sign that could have alerted him to Loki's displeasure over this. How long had he felt so left out? Like he didn't measure up to Thor? These thoughts were like little pins, poking into his heart and causing him millions of little aches.

 

***

 

 

_"Thor, come back! Don't leave me here!" Loki's voice carried down the path as Thor continued to gallop along with the his friends, the young Warriors Three. His laughter seemed to echo among the trees on either side of the company._

_Out from behind one the the large trees came barreling a young boy - young man even, who looked to be too young and child-faced. Some of the armor on him seemed to be too big and bounced up and down as the raven haired youth tried to catch up with his older brother and his company. It was harder than he had originally thought when they were oh horseback and he was being weighed down by armor he had borrowed from Thor's old stash._

_"Keep up, dear brother!" However, Thor wasn't going to make it easier for his brother to catch up as he dug his heals in and his horse raced forwards, followed by his friends. Thor looked back and smiled at Loki. It wasn't an outright nasty smile but it bordered on smug._

_Even from a distance Loki could hear Thor's booming laughter as Fandral abjured that Loki was any warrior at all._

 

 

***

 

 

"We've got a lock on Loki." The Black Widow sat in the pilot seat of the aircraft, Captain Rogers behind her, inspecting the scene past the windshield. "Roof of Stark Towers."

"We'll need to start with all the aliens," Steve furrowed his brows. "We can't risk the lives of so many civilians."

"I can take on Loki. You get down to ground level and do what you can," Stark said.

"Wait," Steve put his hand up to indicate Stark to halt. He turned back to look out the windshield and squinted. "What is he doing?"

Hawkeye moved closer and peer over the soldier's shoulder. "It appears that he's using that scepter of his to further open the portal."

"How do we stop him?" The Captain was sorely out of ideas and was under no pretense that the others had any either. They didn't know where Banner or Thor were and there were about a wave of thousands of the Chitauri coming through the portal in the sky.

 

***

 

"Loki!" The thundering voice didn't surprise Loki. He had expected his old brother to come to reason with him. However, he had declared to himself that his resolve would remain strong no matter what Thor said.

He was swooped off his feet and then went crashing into a wall. Thor stood before him, his blonde hair swirling around in the wind and Mjolnir in hand.

"Ah, Thor - nice of you to drop by for yet another fruitless talk." He pushed Thor's hand away and he steadied himself and took a step sideways.

"I'm telling you again, brother, give up this poisonous dream!"

"Even if I decided to give myself up, it's too late to call the army back. I have discovered my new purpose in life - and this time, you are not part of it.Tell your mother and father that I am never coming back to the place you call home." With that he jabbed his small dagger into Thor's side and jumped right from the roof. Wind whipped at his body, howling in his ears, before his feet thudded into the metal board of one of the Chitauri's machines.

 

***

 

There was a loud buzzing in his ears as he righted himself. He eyed the bloody dagger a few feet from him before he scouted the sky for Loki. Maybe with a bit more reassurance that he was hopelessly wanted back in the arms of his family Loki would drop this menacing act and let Thor take him home, where he belonged.

First, he reassured himself.

 

***

 

 

_The two young boys lay in the grass, staring up at the stars. The dark haired one kept pointing up and tracing the paths of some constellations. The blond was, however, not as taken with the dark sky._

_He did look at the stars and their beauty but he was more enraptured with his brother and the passionate look on his face as he rambled on and on about the different constellations, telling the different stories behind them._

_His soft tone seemed to almost waft through the air, coaxing a smile onto Thor's face. His eyes shone brilliantly and his arm reached out as though he longed to drift upwards and touch the burning gems, along with his brother._

_Loki then made a blanket out of his words, his story of how stars are just doors to other worlds, and slowly placed it over Thor for soon the blond found himself drifting away into a realm of dreams under the canopy of blazing stars._

 

 

***

 

 

Thor knew that once Loki landed on the ground and began to fight with the Captain, he had only one option. Loki's army moved about, hordes culminating around each of the Avengers.

He dragged his eyes from one member of the team to another. Doctor Banner had only recently arrived and even with the help of his alter ego, they were seriously out-numbered and getting far too tired.

So he dropped his arm after he swatted away another alien. Then he readied his arm, clammy hand readjusting its grip on Mjolnir. He spotted his brother in his full regalia, still fighting Captain America, quite a ways away.

He swung his hammer around and let it go, sending it flying towards Loki. It flew past Loki's head, grazing his ear, enough to catch his attention.

"Enough!" Thor's bellow could be heard for many feet, even over the screeching of the Chitauri. A few feet away, Iron Man landed and knocked aside another Chitauri.

"Enough of this Loki! Call your army to a hault!" Mjolnir flew back into his hand and Thor took a menacing step forward. He gritted his teeth as his brother snarled.

"Do you really think that I will so easily call my army to a stop? My, my, my...you have never been the brightest, I must admit, but I thought you had gotten the idea that I refuse to listen to you and take any orders from you or your team of mismatched 'heroes'." He turned his head back just in time to block a blow from Captain Rogers' shield.

"I will do as you please, Loki, just abandon this mad quest for ruling Midgard." At his words, the other Avengers seemed to freeze in place. The Chitauri kept attacking, though, landing a few good hits while the Avengers were distracted.

The Black Widow ripped her arm away from one alien and bashed another's head in with the stolen weapon in her hands before trudging towards Thor.

"What are you doing? You can't give up, we need to keep fighting if we want to beat him!" She was close to bashing Thor with the weapon in order to make him see sense. If they gave up, then the whole of Earth was doomed.

"No, this fight is over. I give up."

"Hmm, never pegged you for a quitter. What - hmm, I-- what the heck is this?" Thor could hear Iron Man's voice, sarcastic as ever. "Do you think we want him to rule our world? Eh, newsflash, we don't like that - we are fighting for our freedom here after all. So...sorry Bob if we ignore what you just said and keep going."

Thor ignored Stark - and the fact that he seemed to forget his name all of a sudden - and stared across the street at his brother.

Loki looked victorious. He grinned menacingly and then raised his scepter. It glowed brightly before a blast emanated from it and Thor found himself flying backwards, into a building. He struggled against the hand that snaked around his neck.

"Say it again."

Panting for breath, Thor raised his eyes to look into Loki's, "I give up."

"I don't find that to be enough." A leer crept across Loki's lips, the scepter poked at Thor's neck.

Thor knew the minute he initiated this that there was only one thing that could tide over Loki.

"I am willing to give up my right to the kingdom of Asgard."

 

 

***

 

 

Thor couldn't remember the last time he had been handled roughly, like a criminal. Slowly, he recalled New Mexico and how he had tried to retrieve his hammer. Just before he had been brought the false news of his father's death by Loki.

Now he stood solemnly behind Loki, Chitauri holding onto his arms, flanking him on both sides. The Avengers had all but been pushed aside once Loki commanded his army to stop and bring Thor forward. He was soon dragged away from the gapping hole he'd left in the building and propped up in the middle of the street.

Loki turned around to face them, the tesseract already in his hands, his face almost resembling that of a monster with its utter malice.

Before Thor could turn to look at the Avengers again, who stood in a tight group, huddled together by a large group of Chitauri, Loki barked orders at one alien and then gripped Thor's neck too tightly as he transported them from the Realm of Midgard and its brave warriors.

 

 

***

 

 

Thor was thumped down onto the golden floors of the palace to the gasps and cries of Æsirs. Loki grasped his neck and looked around the throne room. He spotted the Warriors Three racing towards them, Lady Sif leading them. He pulled back and tugged Thor into a kneeling position.

"Anyone moves any closer and I'm afraid our golden prince will be suffering from a gaping hole through his chest."

Loki's words barely shocked Thor. He knew that he had lost his brother now. There was nothing in his power he could do now, except to just give up the throne and hope Loki one day saw a way to forgive him. All he could do was stare aimlessly at the floor and hope that Loki saw reason soon.

Hogun barely got a hold of Lady Sif before she could fling her sword at the dark prince. Volstagg crashed into Fandral and they almost came toppling down in a tangle of their limbs. No one else moved as they stared in shock at Thor's bruised face, the blood slowly creeping down from his temple, and the manner in which Loki held him. Almost everyone could remember some occasion where the brothers hugged or laughed in secret - never had they seen them this way.

Odin stood up from the thrones and placed his hand onto Frigg's shoulder to calm her and to give her some strength. Frigg was close to flinging herself down the steps of the throne dais and rushing over to her two boys. Unshed tears began to stream down her face as she stared at both princes - one physically battered and the other one emotionally and mentally.

"I have come back to Asgard to claim what your precious Thor has promised me!"

Chaos ensued. A portal was opened and out raced hordes of Chitauri. Loki pushed Thor away and glided towards the throne, smirking menacingly as he readied to battle Odin should the old king put up a fight.

Thor slumped forward and felt his feverish cheek come into contact with the cold floor. He felt, more than heard, the pounding of many footsteps as men and women ran in any directions. Chitauri chased them.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again he couldn't see anything but a booted foot in front of his face.

 

 

***

 

 

Taken to a prison in the very castle that he grew up in, Thor was pushed between two aliens and locked up. He could have sworn he heard his mother's anguished cry echoing down the long hallway.

 

 

***

 

 

Days passed by, Thor lost track. He just knew that Loki was instilling fear in the hearts of Asgardians. Some others were brought to the jails. He saw a slumped over figure he dared guess was Sif being dragged to a cell a few feet away. Fandral and Volstagg had been roughly pushed into another cell but Hogun must have hid or fooled Loki somehow for Thor never got a glance of him - at least, not while he was conscious.

Food was barely brought down to him and he didn't get any chance to see Loki. He craved to see that his brother was finally happy but his brother chose not to visit him, even to mock him.

However, he soon found himself being hauled into the throne room - not by the Chitauri but by the actual palace guards. Loki sat on the throne, reading over a scroll. Thor had always thought that his brother was much better suited for kingship. He was smarter than Thor ever hoped to be, he was a great fighter - no matter what some people said out of bitterness - and he had always stayed calm. All Thor wanted to do was run amok and go on journeys to hunt down some wild beasts.

How is it that one small journey - a banishment - to Midgard had changed them so greatly?

"I must admit," drawled Loki from the throne, "the people of Asgard are much more stubborn than you, Thor. They actually put up a fight, unlike you, who so easily gave up." He looked at his hand, inspecting his nails. He took his chance he had to remind Thor how he had given up his right to the throne without a fight. Thor let him - it was not a lie after all.

Loki kept going, saying something but there was a loud buzzing in Thor's ears and his throat ached from disuse. He cast his eyes around the throne room and let them rest on his brother's figure. He spoke up, interrupting Loki.

"They refuse to follow you after everything you did because they don't have anything on which to base their respect and hope for you. I have fallen to my knees before you in defeat because I hope you will do the right thing. Even if it means banishing me. Just know that I follow you because I am the only one here who loves you!"

Loki's small smirk vanishes and the dark circles under his eyes become more profound. He discreetly wipes his clammy hands on his trouser leg, gritting his teeth at Thor's honesty.

With a wave of his hand, Thor is rushed away, pulled along, still on his knees, where he thinks he will stay for many more days.

 

 

***

 

 

Food was brought to him, a rare gift still. Even rarer was the sight of his brother.

Loki stood off to the side, dressed in a simple tunic and trousers. His face looked worn and tired and Thor worries that he isn't getting enough sleep.

He wished to reach out through the bars and hold his brothers hand but he's afraid to scare him away just yet.

Down the hall he could hear a few growls from other prisoners but ignored them in order to simply stare at his lost brother. For Loki is truly lost, in a way that Thor did not even comprehend.

 

 

***

 

 

A nightmare awoke him.

One of many.

He cannot reason with his own mind, cannot convince himself to ignore these vicious dreams of the Other finding him again. He'd shaken the connection between them but the after effect was almost just as bad. He gripped his bed sheets and pulled himself up into a sitting position.

He recalled the times that Thor had come to him after having a nightmare. He'd never told him what haunted him, or that anything did at all, but Loki knew him like the back of his hand. At that time, Thor was his brother.

 _He still is_ , a soft voice whispered from a far corner of his mind.

 

 

***

 

 

Loki had visited Thor again. Thor hoped to hear his gentle voice once again. He closed his eyes and willed Loki to open his mouth and let a story escape from his lips.

Clearing his throat, Thor prompted Loki.

"No."

It was the first word he had spoken to Thor is some time.

"Please. Do you not remember how much you loved telling me about the many things that you had learned?"

"I prefer not to recall such things."

"Are you losing all your memories of us, Brother?"

There was a pause, pregnant with silence that Thor no longer cared for. Then his voice rose from a quiet timbre to a sharp note that resonated in Thor's ears.

"No - quite the opposite really. I clearly remember everything. All the times you mocked me, be it in private or in front of your friends. All the times you left me to trail after you as you went off with the Warriors Three on journeys I was meant to accompany you on. All the times you would take Mother's attention from me. All the times you've completely eclipsed me as I stood before Father, trying to show him what I had learned. I had forgiven you at first - you couldn't possibly know any better, you oaf. But as we grew I began to notice how everyone was simply more taken with you. No one spared me a second glance. I was always going to be second best."

Thor's eyes became unfocused, memories running through his mind, tearing at his heart.

 

 

***

 

 

_"Loki?" A gangling figure could be seen._

_Thor's gentle whisper had not awoken his younger brother, he had been awake for a long time beforehand. However, he did not wish to converse with the blond right now._

_"I'm asleep, Thor."_

_"Then I'll just g-- Hey!" Loki stifled a snicker at his brother's expense. He was far too easy to fool sometimes._

_"That wasn't very nice, Brother."_

_"Well, it isn't very nice of you to come barreling into my chambers while I'm busy."_  
 _Thor peered around and gave his brother a quizzical look. "But you are not doing anything."_

_"Sleeping is considered as doing something, Brother." Loki huffed and turned onto his back so that he could see his brother better. Thor still stood by the doors, hesitant to move. He wore his night gown and his hair was more disheveled than usual._

_"But that's not important." Loki could hear the soft whine in Thor's voice._

_"Only you would think that," sighing again, Loki hauled himself up into a sitting position and evaluated Thor. On closer speculation he could see that the great blond had dark circles under his eyes and perspiration on his neck and face. Thor's hands twitched and the young oaf looked ready to collapse._

_"I cannot sleep, so I was going to read some scrolls that I had found about Elves in the library. Would you care to join me?"_

_Thor nodded eagerly and clambered up into Loki's large bed as Loki reached over to his side table to grab some weathered scrolls._

 

 

***

 

 

His brother, who never mocked him, always took the brunt of any punishment, and only left Thor to be praised dor anything. How had he never seen what was wrong with this?

 

 

***

 

 

_"See how simple it is, Father?" Loki snapped his fingers and his chalice reappeared in its rightful spot on the grand table, slushing a bit of his drink around into his father's lap._

_"Loki, I do wish you would be a bit more well-mannered while we dine. Practice your tricks someplace where you will not irritate anyone else." With a great sigh, Odin swiped his napkin from the table and dabbed at his golden robes._

_Loki silently offered his napkin before picking up his fork and eating the rest of his meal calmly. The meat tasted foul, the potatoes too hot and the random vegetables strewn around a bitter, burnt taste. He barely chewed any of his food before quickly swallowing and almost chocking._

_Odin continued to speak to one of his advisers while Frigga looked to her youngest with a gentle smile. The only one at the table who paid the raven haired prince any attention was Thor._

_Sitting across from his brother, he extended his leg under the table and nudged Loki's foot with his own. Once he caught the brooding prince's attention he smiled and then proceeded to make silly faces at their father until he was promptly caught._

 

 

***

 

 

"The countless amount of times I faced Odin's disappointment! I clearly remember all those times, like it all just happened yesterday. He never looked at you the way he looked at me so when you - the golden boy - finally made him angry and caused him to banish you - I honestly felt ... overjoyed for some time. You wouldn't understand why, though. I thought that with you gone for the time being, I would be left to impress the Allfather with all the things I could do. There were far too many things I apparently couldn't do, in the eyes of you, your father and all your friends.

"But, I learned quickly that the Allfather still didn't deem me good enough to pay any attention to. However, I did have my mind fairly preoccupied myself. After all, that trip we made to Jotunheim was the doorway to realising what I truly was.

"You see, dear Thor, while we were fighting for our lives - the very lives you so carelessly endangered - one of the Frost Giants got a grip on my arm. Where my skin should have started to turn black and hurt - I only felt the slightest of chills and my arm, instead, turned blue...

"I stayed up a few nights, wondering exactly what had happened. I needed to somehow explain what it all meant. But my mind had already provided me with the obvious answer - something I just didn't want to believe in. So I went to see that treasure of the Frost Giants' and Odin soon found me. I demanded my answers and finally, he had mercy and told me everything.

"He told me how I hadn't been good enough for my actual father. Because what would the king of all Frost Giants want with a small, un-Jotunn like child? He'd left me out in some ruins to die. That's where Odin found me and decided to keep me so that one day he could somehow manipulate me into achieving peace between the realms."

Thor's ears rang from hearing the story. How must have Loki felt when he himself heard all this? His tears overflowed and a sob wracked his chest. His fingers twitched around the bars, itching to grab a hold of Loki's blue hand.

Blinking, Thor stared up at Loki. Loki, who now stood closer to the cell, all blue. His startling red eyes cut through Thor and made him weep for the pain he saw in them.

 

 

***

 

 

A night came, where Thor awoke to a gentle rubbing of a circle on his hand. He blinked a few times but couldn't rid himself of his bleariness from his azure blue orbs. He gripped onto the colour of the sky and drifted off into a dream of drowning in an ocean of blue.

 

 

***

 

 

_Loki cowered in his chambers, his face too red for him to step out and join Thor and his company._

_He had spent hours in the arena, sparring with a warrior who didn't deem him worthy of being called a fighter. He had spurned Loki on and when Loki had tried to reason and say that he didn't wish to waste his time, Thor had laughed and pushed him unintentionally roughly into the ring the onlookers had formed._

_He had been beaten. He hadn't faced a quick and simple defeat, though. Elgunn, the warrior who insister he at least show him the few skills he did possess. Loki had hardly known what to think and he was too paranoid to believe he would be the one to come out on top._

_All around him, people had jeered and whooped, to the point where he got so distracted that one moment he lost his footing and Elgunn had taken a shot when he saw his opening._

_With the heel of his hand, he shoved at Loki's chest, all his air escaping his lungs, and drove him backwards. He'd stumbled, trying to catch his breath, but his foot caught on a rock and he toppled back. Someone cheered - whether Elgunn had won or that the fight was over without too much violence, Loki did not know._

_But that not the end of his humiliation. The warrior continued to display how much of a vastly experienced fighter he was until Thor had finally put a stop to it._

_Loki had simply stood and, while everyone's gaze was directed at Elgunn, Thor and the Warriors Three, shuffled away, back inside the castle to his chambers._

 

 

***

 

 

Loki sat at the foot of his bed, scratching at a patch of thread that Thor had once sown - badly - into his quilt. The jagged shape was meant to represent a flash of lightning and when Frigg had suggested she touch up the shape, Loki had protested on behalf of Thor and insisted that he loved it the way it was.

Thor stood on the balcony, finally in a new set of clothing - a pale grey-ish green loose tunic and brown trousers that Loki had ordered a maid to provide him with. His hair clung to his neck in wet clumps and he still held onto his unfinished roll of bread as he stared across at the stars.

The silence rested over them like a blanket and time seemed to slow down to a snail's pace.

"I remember you once telling me that some believe the stars to be pathways to different worlds. " His voice gruff, Thor continued, "When on Midgard, I had been shown this little tale by Lady Darcy of a young boy who traveled by the path set out for him by the stars. 'Second star to the right, and straight on till morning'."

Thor was afraid to blink, fearing that if he did the dam of tears would break and they would all run down his face like a great big waterfall. He could feel Loki edging closer to him but he ignored his instinct to reach out for him.

"You would not believe how many times I wished to escape to another world through one of these stars, taking you with me. For years, I had planned to do exactly that - I had even devised a plan and packed a sack of necessities. Mother had noticed one night after bidding me a good night and asked what 'her little princeling' was up to. I couldn't look at her and lie so I told her all the grand stories you told me. I still remember her twinkling laI must admit,pughter. She told me that I already escaped through these doorways everyday - flying away into my imagination. That had made me happy, to know that I had achieved this feat with you still by my side."

A shadow passed over his face as he took a deep breath of calm himself.

"However, Father was not as warming about this idea of mine. He took me hunting one day - the first time, that time when I had come back badly beaten - and chose to discuss how I acted far too childish for my age, having silly dreams of stars and whatnot."

"Is that why you had refused to listen to any story I wanted to tell you for months after?"

Guiltily, Thor nodded. Without his permission a tear had slid down his cheek, through his stubble and fell with a soft thud onto the railing of the balcony. He wanted to break down finally and tell his brother everything. Everything. All his silly fears, all his great loves - anything that he had previously been unable to tell his closest friend because he had been scolded the majority of his life and told to be a man, not a child.

Life had made them best friends and then had driven a stake between them - into their being. But their singular entity of friendship and love felt so familiar that even Loki forgot about fearing that they would never be right again - that their friendship would never be the same again.

As Loki reached out and grasped Thor's hand, they both slouched and fell into their nets of safety and peacefulness. It was like finally both had arrived home, even though they had physically returned many days and weeks and even months ago, only now had they truly come home.

**Author's Note:**

> I had gotten this idea a while back and after many attempts I have finally managed to finish it. I am just incredibly relieved. I hope you enjoyed it, and sorry (not sorry!) if it made you cry too much the way it made me stop and sob half the time.


End file.
